Frequently Asked Questions

This page contains a list of the most frequently asked questions that appear in forums, comments and facebook messages as well as a few basic troubleshooting tips. We will continue to add to this page- if you feel like we've overlooked something, leave a comment below.

Contents

General Questions

How do I get a specific backpack item?

If you are looking for information on how to get a certain backpack item to help you complete a quest, find that item on our Backpack Items page. You can click the link and it will show every way we have found to get it, which items you can use to get it, or any special information.

I need a yard item but I already cleared it!

Try using the Language Trick to respawn yard items. This works on most of the items required by quests and building materials. See the page for more information.

My Inbox says "Your Backpack is full of this item."

Each Backpack item has a preset limit of how much of that item you can hold. Once you reach the limit, you will be unable to accept any more. There is a glitch in the inbox system that will still allow you to collect these items if you see this message. Simply click accept on all the messages but DO NOT click 'Done' or 'Cancel' to close the inbox. Immediately reload the page. All the items will be in your backpack and the energy will be loaded in your energy bar and ready to use.

News Feed Requests

News feeds can be posted once every 16 hours. You can only get ten items from your friends per feed. So if you need 20 items, you will have to post a feed twice.

If you get an error when you attempt to post a feed, you will have to wait the 16 hours before reposting it.

News Feed Clutter/Creating a List of Sims Friends

You can create 'Lists' of friends on facebook that groups different people together and lets you make posts that only they can see. To create a list, go to a friend's page and click on the button that has a check mark and says "Friends". You can click "Add to another list" and then scroll down to the bottom and click "New List". This will allow you to create a Sims Friends or Sims Players (call it whatever you want) list.
If you only want your friends that play Sims Social to see the posts you make, go to your account settings in facebook, and the applications tab. Find the Sims Social and click 'edit' on the right. Under the "Posts on your behalf" section, click the drop down menu and select the list of Sims friends you created earlier.
Note: You can choose to not show people's posts from this list, but if you use a Bonus Collector it may not work unless the posts are visible.

I clicked "Ask Friends" but the list isn't coming up!

If you've clicked on an item that needs backpack items to unlock it or build it, you have the option to "Ask Friends" if you dont have enough. If you click the button and nothing happens, it may be because you sent out requests to everyone on your list already. If not, just wait a minute and then reload the game and try again. If it still does not work, clear your cache in your browser and try again.

Remember: Only one request may be sent to each friend per game day. If you left your game opened during the 12:00AM GMT time when the new game day occurs, you will have to wait for the next game day.

I need more neighbors and I dont know where to find any

Inactive Friends

Option 2: Hover over "The Sims Social"

If you added tons of people and some of them no longer play, there are a few ways to go back through your account to find and remove inactive Sims friends.

If someone has gone five days or more without playing you will see an inbox message with a white background asking to send them a special gift. Sometimes these players have just taken a long weekend away, but if you see this message from the same person regularly, they have likely quit playing.

On your Facebook home page/News Feed screen, find a post from The Sims Social (it can be anything). Hover over the words "The Sims Social" in grey at the end of the news feed - see the image to the right for example. The pop up box will say "___ number of your friends have played The Sims Social in the last 30 days." Click on the blue link with the number of friends. It will open a popup box of active friends. You can use that list against your Sims Friends facebook list, or try to check people off one by one from the game screen.

Send out a message to everyone on your Sims Friends list saying you're deleting your list and starting over and if someone is still active if they can re-add you. This method is not recommended as people may find it mildly annoying.

Troubleshooting Questions

Loading Issues

Sometimes during high traffic periods, where tons of people are trying to access the game at the same time, you may have trouble connecting. Wait and try to load the page again in a few minutes. If that does not fix the issue, check to make sure that there are no Facebook issues on their Live Status page.

Try using a different computer, if the problem is fixed then you can try adjusting the other computer's settings to get it working correctly

If these basic steps do not work, visit the Official EA forums IT/Bugs section and supply them with your Facebook ID#, and when the problem started. Someone from the development team can go in and help you out.

Error Messages

Error on a Quest

If you are working on a specific step in a quest when the error message occurs, make note of which quests you have opened. You can do this by hovering over the list of faces on the left side of the screen, and the quest names will appear over them. Visit the quest page, find the quest you are trying to complete and look at the page and comments. There are a few quests that have known bugs and require an easy work around and the quest pages will list the info somewhere. If not, post a new comment.

Error on an Item

If you are trying to use a certain item when the error occurs, first try clearing your cache and reloading the game. If the error continues, see the item page for any details or a workaround. If nothing is posted, try checking the Official EA forums IT/Bugs section for more information.